Good morning, RVA! It's 41 °F, but today looks pretty excellent once things warm up a bit. Expect highs in the mid 60s and plenty of sunshine. We might see some rain over the weekend paired with some chilly morning temperatures.
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports...nothing! Sounds like they had a technology issues, and yesterday's data dump never happened. I hope with today's update they also make yesterday's data available. In lieu of numbers, read this press release from the Legal Aid Justice Center that calls Governor Northam's announcement to move to Phase One of recovery on May 15th "reckless and cruel." Further: "Until we can reliably deliver basic public health protections and care—especially to marginalized communities—and take aggressive steps to minimize the cruel and inequitable effects of the pandemic, Virginia must stay closed for business. There is no acceptable margin of lives lost or families devastated that justifies prioritizing economic pressures over the health and safety of people, especially when Black and brown Virginians would bear the brunt of this deadly calculation."
Well, well, well, look who it is! Return of the NoBro! Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense says some of the Navy Hill developers are back and want to move ahead with a small portion of the project. Their new proposal does not include an arena, a TIF (big or regular-sized), or many of the public-good amenities that came along with the previous project. It would, however, put the block bordered by Leigh, 9th, and 10th back on the tax rolls and (might) reopen Clay Street. Y'all, there were many, many words written about how piecemeal development of this area was impossible and that absolutely no one would be interested in doing anything in the neighborhood without a single-developer master plan and a publicly-financed arena. Turns out, maybe that area has more potential and flexibility. Second, one place where the original NoBro process went off the rails was its lack of community engagement, and, in their spiking of the project, Council asked the Mayor to complete a "Navy Hill area plan prior to the issuance of any future request for proposal for redevelopment of the land within the Navy Hill Development Project area" (that's from RES. 2020-R009 (PDF)). This new proposal did not come from a City-issued RFP, and I don't think anything in it would conflict with what ended up in an area plan. That said, part of me wants to finish the plan before selling off whole blocks of City-owned land. That said, it'd be cool and nice to have more property generating more taxes as we head into whatever hellhole of a recession we're staring into. Roberto Roldan, because he's a gentleman and a scholar, has uploaded the entire 145-page unsolicited offer PDF if you want to dig in.
Speaking of planning, Venture Richmond has a Brown's Island Improvement Plan Community Survey that you can and should fill out. They're putting together an entire vision for the future of Brown's Island and now's your chance to weigh in. I really enjoy these surveys that ask me for thoughts and opinions on the proposed vibe of a place. Sometimes I have no idea how to diff between two engineering diagrams of proposed alternatives! But, I tell you what, I know a lot more about whether I'd prefer places to sit or river terraces! P.S. River terraces are sweet.
Ack! One more planning thing—apologies to people who hate thinking about the future of our City and its public spaces. The Urban Design Committee will take a look at the Fonticello/Carter Jones Park Conceptual Master Plan (PDF) at their meeting today. Flip through the aforelinked PDF, and you can take a look at it, too!
I need to get better at looking for legislation after its been introduced, because I miss things like Councilmember Lynch's resolution to ask that the Mayor exclude marijuana from the substance-use detection testing for City employees and applicants for City positions (RES. 2020-R030). That paper, and RES. 2020-R031 which expresses Council's support for the Strategic Plan to End Homelessness (PDF), are on today's Education and Human Services Committee agenda (PDF). This gets me newly stoked on using my public Trello GMRVA Ordinance Tracker board. It kind of languished there for a bit while the pandemic annihilated all of our legislative capacity, but no longer!
Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says the RRHA has named Stacey Daniels-Fayson as their interim CEO. This is going to be a tough job to fill permanently.
I...do not know what to make of this story in Richmond BizSense by Jack Jacobs about the South of the James market moving north of the James to Bryan Park. Here's the money quote: "The move comes in response to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and amid 'tremendous pressure' put on the city government by Whit Clements, president of the Forest Hill Neighborhood Association, and Fourth District Councilwoman Kristen Larson." Fascinating. Regardless, you won't find me at any market any time soon.
This morning's longread
What Happens If I Don’t Like Fiona Apple?
This piece made me laugh, but, honestly, I can’t relate. I think Fiona Apple’s new album is excellent.
I know, for instance, that I have a particular aversion to hippies, and that during the making of this album, Apple chanted around her house with various other musicians, banging on a box of her dead pet’s bones. I know I am intimidated by the blues and by jazz and reject them because of how stupid they make me feel, a symptom of my more general difficulty with engaging in art I don’t at least marginally understand. I know I have a particular aversion to beautiful women in the arts, because it’s never just about the art. I know this particular beautiful woman has dated powerful men — most notably the director Paul Thomas Anderson, as he got more and more famous — and that never means nothing, good or bad.
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